First Images of Opportunity Site Show Bizarre Landscape

NASA’s Opportunity rover returned the first pictures of its landing site early today, revealing a surreal, dark landscape unlike any ever seen before on Mars. Opportunity relayed the images and other data via NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter. The data showed that the spacecraft is healthy, said Matt Wallace, mission manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “Opportunity has touched down in a bizarre, alien landscape,” said Dr. Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.